Before Star Trek, I was a fan of the 1950’s run of “Tom Swift jr.” books back when I was in grade school. Those were some of the first books I read, kicking off a love of science fiction literature that has lasted for more than forty -five years. The whole idea of A Kid Like Me being a scientific/engineering genius appealed, and undoubtedly played some role in my becoming an aerospace engineer. So just imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this trailer for an Extra Special version of Tom Swift soon to premier as a series on the CW:
I *defy* anyone who read the 1950’s run of Tom Swift to suggest with a straight face that this has any resemblance beyond the name and the concept of “genius inventor.”
Is there any intellectual property that modern Hollywood *can’t* or *won’t* turn into crap? The existence of this series does not negate the original books, of course… but the existence of *this* series negates the possibility of the good series that *could* have been made.
There are people who suck just about everywhere. And these people seem to love to exercise their vileness on cats… most likely because cats are not only weak and vulnerable compared to humans, they also have distinct personalities, and probably most importantly because they are loved by other humans. This means that harming the cat also harms some humans. Often, *many* humans. Somebody is getting off on this. Somebody who should be found, tried, convicted and then shoved through the nearest convenient stargate.
The news story (which took place distressing close to where I live) is beyond the “Continue Reading,” because even the headline might be a bit disturbing for those who don’t want to read about such things. Included within the body of the linked news article is a news story from a dozen years ago that set me off watching it.
There is a GoFundMe that has been set up to raise funds for a reward to find whoever’s responsible. Hopefully local security cameras caught something.
This is one of the reasons why my cats are indoor cats. The world is dangerous enough for cats without throwing in actual monsters.
A Polish tear-gas “grenade” launcher that uses an AK action and AK blanks to propel the canisters. This seems like a horrible design… overly complex and *far* too heavy. Still, *kinda* cool.
A photo-illustrated article on some of the feline survivors of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. If you’re a fan of cats… prepare for a “Jurassic Bark” sort of response.
He’s jabbering away, filming himself with his cell phone …
… when something comes zipping in and explodes right next to him. The moment of the explosion is not captured well, as you would expect with a millisecond-moment on a crappy cell phone… but what is caught – badly focused, motion-blurred, jarred, etc. – looks like we’re seeing this guys soul being sent directly to Hell:
Neato. A Chechen fighting for Russia to invade another country? Hell would seem an appropriate destination.
Note: I saw the video yesterday, but durned if I can find it again. Oh well.
UPDATE: link to the video after the break. I have also put three frames there… “normal,” “uh-oh” and “transporter malfunction.” Seriously: modern pseudo-Star Trek *loves* horrible things and horrible people; I’m surprised I haven’t seen horrible transporter screwups. If they decide to do such a thing, that third frame could serve as a template. A disturbing template.
YouTube has for several months kept suggesting videos on “nuclear diamond batteries.” Most of the videos I’ve glanced at looked like clickbaity rubbish about fraudulent pseudoscience… and ever now and then I briefly watch one of the videos, and they kinda don’t disappoint.
The Nuclear Diamond Battery itself seems a reasonable enough idea. Small quantities of some radioactive substance such as Carbon 14 or Nickel 63 are formed into thin films and sandwiched between thin films of diamond semiconductors. The radioactive element emits beta radiation – high energy electrons. The electrons are captured and converted to electricity by something akin to a photoelectic cell. The radiation is captured and prevented from escaping, and in the process converted to electricity… sounds like a winner, right? And apparently prototypes have been built that work. And thus we get videos like this:
The video promises batteries that are safe and last for thousands of years. And while this seems to be true, there is one problem that these sort of videos tend to not mention. From the Wikipedia article on the subject:
In 2018, researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), the Technological Institute for Superhard and Novel Carbon Materials (TISNCM), and the National University of Science and Technology (MISIS) announced a prototype using 2-micron thick layers of 63Ni foil sandwiched between 200 10-micron diamond converters. It produced a power output of about 1 μW at for power density of 10 μW/cm3.
That’s ten *micro* Watts per cubic centimeter. A battery one meter on a side (which, using the density of diamond of 3.5 g/cm3, would mass 3,500 kilograms) would produce a power output of… ten Watts. Granted, it would do so for thousands of years but… ten fricken Watts. The Tesla Model S has a total motor output of 615,000 Watts. Such a car would require a Nuclear Diamond Battery with a volume of 61,500 cubic meters, massing somewhere in the vicinity of two hundred thousand *tons.* The Seawise Giant, the largest supertanker in history, could carry two of these batteries.
The news out of China, in particular Shanghai, is just bizarre. The governments extraordinarily draconian lockdown just doesn’t make sense on the face of it. It seems nuts. But the video below presents a few theories that *do* make it make a bit of sense. The first is that Xi is simply stubborn, and that saving face – either of the man himself or of The Party – trumps reason. But the last theory is the most disturbing… and it seems pretty believable: the havoc and despair produced by these policies is intentional because it’s a test. If China invades Taiwan like Russia invaded Ukraine, the worlds response would be similar: an economic lockdown of China. How would China’s cities respond to suddenly no longer having income? When all the factories shut down and nobody is working, how bad will it have to get before the citizens rise up or die en masse? China is also hoarding food supplies as if they are preparing for something major.
Some people wonder why the West should give a damn about Ukraine. *This* is part of the reason why: if large dictatorships see that they can invade and conquer without meaningful pushback, they’ll do it again and again until they *do* get pushback.
Casual Geographic explains succinctly and entertainingly why some species are more important than others. Spoiler warning: humans do a dandy job of wiping out those important species.
The uncomfortably-named “Padraig Belton” who works for the BBC came to the US and forgot that the US doesn’t have British power outlets, so he went to WalMart. He reported on twitter his findings.
There are times when I really, REALLY miss Utah. Where the local grocery store sold ammo and magazines, but if I wanted pistols, shotguns and AR-15s I’d have to walk all the way next door to the Ace Hardware.
